Private School Dedicates Unit

Building Cost $1.4 Million

MIDDLESEX — Christ church School completed another stage of its plans for expansion with the dedication of a dormitory addition Friday.

With a warm spring-like sun shining down, the bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, the Rev. Peter James Lee, presented the key to the building to the school's headmaster, the Rev. Robert S. Phipps.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Sunday, March 11, 1990. This article incorrectly referred to the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia as the Rev. Peter James Lee. His correct title is the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee.

"This is both a moment of joy and a great relief," Phipps told a gathering of students, parents, members of the school board of directors and people associated with construction of the addition, which cost $1.4 million.

As he spoke, the headmaster stood in front of the new brick structure, which will house around 60 students and four faculty members after the school's spring break is over in 10 days. It will also hold an infirmary and an extension of the cafeteria.

After rejoining the Prep League following a 10-year absence in the fall, the small Episcopalian boarding school continues to plan for growth in its physical plant and student body and even for a summer program for disadvantaged youth, administrators say.

The school has just received a gift of $250,000 and hopes it can announce plans to break ground for a new fieldhouse or marine studies center this spring, ac cording to its development director, Cliff Asbury.

Enrollment is at 185 boarders and 62 day students, 21 of whom are girls, he said. The enrollment is up 27 over last year and the total is an all-time high.

The school, perched on a scenic bluff above the Rappahannock River, hopes to stay at a level of 190 boarders for three years and then grow to a maximum of 225 students living on campus and a total of 275, according to Phipps.

"We do not intend to be a large school, because we emphasize a close involvement with students and faculty and that's one thing you can't do with too many youngsters," he said.

The boarding school, which points its students toward college educations, has added seven new faculty members and 13 course offerings, including advanced classes in computer science and chemistry and a journalism elective.

In "the embryonic stages" is a plan to start an academic summer camp for disadvantaged students, Phipps said. The students would come to Christchurch in the summer between the sixth and seventh grades, and again the following summer.

The program, which would have an independent faculty and director, would track the students into high school, trying to help them gain scholarships to boarding schools.

The program would run on corporate support, Phipps said.

"The American corporate world is understanding it's going to need to step in and help change where we are with education at the moment in order to compete in the world," he said.

The program would have 50 to 60 students, he added. He hopes to inaugurate it a year from this summer.